Various amusement rides have been created to provide passengers with unique motion and visual experiences, including roller coasters, theme rides, and simulators. Roller coasters and theme rides typically have the limitation of being a fixed ride experience, with changes to the ride being made only at great expense. As a result, passengers can become familiar with the ride, which limits the excitement of the ride. Additionally, roller coasters and theme rides generally lack the ability to be pointed and rotated in any direction. While simulators can easily create varying scenery and movement with programming changes, as well as moving a passenger in almost any direction, simulators fall short in their ability to create an actual ride experience. The passenger in a simulator does not receive the experience of actually traveling. Rather, the passenger remains fixed and the visual and sensory experience is generally created at a fixed location.
To create improved rides, simulators have been placed on moving vehicles. The vehicle typically travels over a set course with the motion base providing e.g., controlled pitch, roll, heave, surge, and slip movement, as well as limited yaw movement. However, conventional simulators, whether fixed or vehicle mounted, generally have limited yaw control and movement. Simulators with a six-axis motion base, for example, can provide for only limited yaw movement. Consequently, these types of rides are often not able to be rotated to face the passengers in any direction, without actually rotating the entire vehicle with respect to its intended path of motion along a track.
Some roller coasters and related rides having 360 degree or continuous yaw movement have been proposed. However, in combination with this yaw rotation, these types of rides typically do not allow for pitch, heave, surge, and slip of the passenger compartment. Thus, these rides cannot orient passengers in a large number of directions.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved amusement ride vehicle.